Kyle Larson won Sunday’s (March 23) Straight Talk Wireless 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway, earning his first win of the 2025 season and the 30th of his Cup Series career.
Larson passed teammate Alex Bowman on lap 261 after Bowman made contact with the wall in turn three. Larson was able to drive away after staging a late charge through the top five.
Bowman, Bubba Wallace, Chase Briscoe, Denny Hamlin, Chris Buescher, AJ Allmendinger, Tyler Reddick, Ryan Preece and Justin Haley completed the top-10.
“Just had to keep plugging away,” Larson said of his late-race charge. “Just a lot of hard work today between qualifying bad and bad restarts. To keep my head down and keep digging feels really good.”
Larson was in third with 11 laps to go, but made quick work of Wallace in order to chase down Bowman. When Bowman slipped up and made a mistake, Larson pounced.
Bowman was the polesitter and was able to wrangle the lead away from Wallace on Lap 235, but Larson’s long-run speed was too much for Bowman to overcome. His mistake on Lap 261 was the final nail in the coffin for his hopes of winning the race.
“I guess I choked that one away,” Bowman told Fox Sports. “I kinda burnt my stuff up, saw the No. 5 coming so I moved around a little bit. Just a couple mistakes there. The last run was probably the best we were.”
Wallace led 56 laps and ran away from the field on the race’s final restart, but was passed by both Bowman and Larson in the closing laps.
“We showed up here in Miami and had speed,” Wallace told Fox Sports. “I was praying for track position. My pit crew has been on fire. Got out front and I didn’t think I burned my stuff up. Hats off to my No. 23 group here, it’s been a grind al yar long. We’ve been getting kicked in the teeth in the third stage every race, to finally close one out is good.”
Briscoe quietly made his way into the mix, earning his best finish since the Daytona 500.
“It was just what we needed as a race team,” Briscoe told Fox Sports. ” We can finally build on this . It’s fun to be up in the front all day long, I feel like I’m finally showing what I’m capable of.”
Ryan Blaney had the fastest car on Sunday afternoon, but an engine failure on lap 207 relegated him to a 36th-place finish. Blaney was shuffled back to ninth on pit road following stage 2, but was able to get back to third before his motor let go. Blaney led 124 laps and won stage 1 on Sunday.
Straight Talk Wireless 400 Results
The seventh race of the 2025 season will take place at Martinsville Speedway on March 30. The Cook Out 400 will go green shortly after 3 p.m. ET, with coverage on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
A member of the National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA), Samuel also covers NASCAR for Yardbarker, Field Level Media, and Heavy Sports. He will attend the University of Arkansas in the fall of 2025.